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Wayne LaPierre

Executive Vice President and CEO

Wayne LaPierre

Executive Vice President and CEO

Biography

Wayne LaPierre has worked as a government activist and lobbyist since receiving a M.A. from Boston College. He began working for the National Rifle Association in 1978 as a state liaison in the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). LaPierre would become Executive Director of the NRA-ILA in 1986 before taking over the top position at the NRA in 1991. As Executive Vice President, LaPierre is in charge of the NRA’s 76 member Board of Directors and directs the organization’s policy. LaPierre has been an outspoken hardliner on gun rights and is no stranger to extreme rhetoric. In 1995 he called federal law enforcement agents “jack-booted thugs” and accused Bill Clinton of having “blood on his hands” for his support of gun control measures. LaPierre has mobilized the National Rifle Association against Democratic nominees for President in 2004, 2008, and 2012 presidential elections.

Between 2008 and 2010, the NRA paid LaPierre compensation in an amount ranging from $948,858 and $1,263,101 per year.

In an editorial in the Daily Caller on February 27, 2015, LaPierre claimed that universal background check legislation in the U.S. Congress would lead to "mandatory gun registration" and "confiscation." "'Universal background checks' are just the first step in their long march to destroying our Second Amendment-protected rights," claimed LaPierre. In truth, legislation introduced in Congress to implement universal background checks would simply run additional checks through the existing background check system established by the Brady Law in 1994. That instant check system—which searches for disqualifying criminal and/or mental health history for gun buyers through the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database—has never led to either registration or confiscation of firearms.

Following LaPierre’s speech at the NRA annual convention on April 25, 2014, Media Matters for America reported that the speech was virtually identical to the one the NRA CEO gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference one month earlier on March 6, 2014. An in-depth review of both speeches by Media Matters identified only three substantive differences. Media Matters was unable to determine why LaPierre “plagiarized himself.”

In an October 17, 2012 interview with NRA News, LaPierre stated, "We’ll go to our graves mourning the freedoms we’ve lost in this country if we don’t step up between now and election time and make the difference in this election and make sure President [Barack] Obama’s defeated on election day."

In the October 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “Of all the threats to American liberty posed by the [President Barack] Obama administration, the most dangerous is the corruption of the U.S. Department of Justice where high-level misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance have become the norm. The U.S. Department of Justice is supposed to be a neutral guardian of the rule of law and protector of our national order. It is supposed to uphold the United States Constitution. Instead, under President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, it has become the national enforcer of Chicago-style thuggery on the national scene … Under operation ‘Fast and Furious,’ Holder’s Justice Department has abetted federal felony gun-law violations and international gun running—resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Mexican nationals and the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.” LaPierre was referring to the discontinued “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border. A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2012 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in “Fast and Furious” until after it was concluded in 2011. LaPierre then turned to the topic of Voter ID legislation, stating, “But no clearer example exists of the deep corruption at Justice than its efforts to vacate state laws preventing election fraud … The Obama/Holder Justice Department is running a vote fraud protection racket by jamming the courts with lawsuits opposing state mandates that provide a simple solution to election cheating–Voter ID … Now connect the dots to another key assault on our freedom. Aligned with the Department of Homeland Security, Obama’s top federal law enforcement leaders are refusing to enforce immigration laws to stem the tide of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, potential illegal voters.” Voter ID laws in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida have been challenged in court by the Department of Justice over allegations that they disenfranchise minorities. In July of 2012, the DOJ began investigating Pennsylvania’s Voter ID law to determine whether it discriminates against minorities. Furthermore, research has shown that in-person voter fraud of the kind LaPierre warns about is extremely rare in the United States.

In the July 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “We have been enormously successful in restoring Second Amendment freedom to honest Americans. But those hard-earned victories are vulnerable so long as Barack Obama is president. Despite his claims to the contrary, the threats we face today are as real and dangerous as any we’ve face before … Americans have had enough of this administration’s elitist contempt for our freedoms and our way of life … We can’t wait. If we sit back and count on a victory in 2016, we will face four long years under an emboldened anti-gun president. With no more elections to worry about, Obama will finally be free to launch an open assault on the Second Amendment. Now is the time to stop that from happening. It’s up to each of us to ask ourselves one simple question every day from now until November: am I doing everything I can to win this election?”

In the June 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned, “American freedom as we know it is in jeopardy.” He wrote, “There is no greater freedom than the ability to own a firearm to protect yourself, your family, your community and your country. That freedom is the heart and soul of our nation. And that soul is at stake in this election … If [President Barack] Obama wins this year, he will wage an all-out assault on America’s heart and soul. This isn’t just the most important election of our lifetimes–it’s the most important election for our children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s lifetimes.”

2014-03-16

In the May 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “All our freedoms are on the line [in the 2012 presidential election].” He accused President Barack Obama of being connected to a political “web of Chicago thug[s],” and having spun a “web of lies…about [his] phony, claimed support of the Second Amendment.”

In the March 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned that if the NRA fails to end the “Barack Obama regime…the Right to Keep and Bear Arms could well perish in a Supreme Court heartbeat.” He added that an “Obama majority” on the Supreme Court would “rule that only the government has a right to guns, not individuals like you.” “We have time to stop the Obama juggernaut and to make history together,” LaPierre stated, “but we must start now—not only to save our guns but to save our heritage. The future of freedom in America depends on it.”

In the February 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre declared that the 2012 presidential election “could prove [to be] the most disastrous in the history of the country,” because President Barack Obama is “leading our country straight to…tyranny.” “It’s all or nothing,” LaPierre warned. “Either we defeat Barack Obama and retain all the benefits of our pro-gun victories over the last 30 years…or we lose this election and we lose it all.”

In the January 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre declared, “The emerging autocracy of President Barack Obama presents the gravest danger to our individual liberty in our lifetimes … The Second Amendment and our national character as we know it are at stake in the coming elections.” He accused the Obama Administration of being “engaged in a conspiracy of public deception intended to…excise the Second Amendment” from the Constitution. “The nation cannot survive another four years of Obama’s arrogant one-man rule,” LaPierre wrote.

At the 2007 National Rifle Association annual meeting, LaPierre told the audience, “So no matter what the animal rights terrorists throw at us, no matter what crime wave illegal immigrant gangs cause, no matter what deals are cut in the back rooms of the United Nations, no matter who is slamming gavels at the Supreme Court, no matter who is sitting in the White House, and no matter who wins what election or chairs what committee, if they are enemies of what’s in that exhibit hall over there, if they threaten what that great hall preserves [guns], if they dare assault the one freedom that secures all freedoms, this National Rifle Association, millions and millions of members strong, you will rise and stand and we, together, will fight them all.”

2014-03-16

In 2005, LaPierre called for the boycott of ConocoPhillips after the company filed a lawsuit to defend its ban on the possession of firearms at an Oklahoma refinery. He then made the following statement: “ConocoPhillips went to federal court to attack your freedom. Now freedom is going to fire back … Idabel, Oklahoma, is a new Concord Bridge. Our forefathers didn’t run from the Redcoats in 1775 and we’re not going to run from the corporations in 2005.”

In an editorial in the Daily Caller on February 27, 2015, LaPierre claimed that universal background check legislation in the U.S. Congress would lead to "mandatory gun registration" and "confiscation." "'Universal background checks' are just the first step in their long march to destroying our Second Amendment-protected rights," claimed LaPierre. In truth, legislation introduced in Congress to implement universal background checks would simply run additional checks through the existing background check system established by the Brady Law in 1994. That instant check system—which searches for disqualifying criminal and/or mental health history for gun buyers through the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database—has never led to either registration or confiscation of firearms.

Following LaPierre’s speech at the NRA annual convention on April 25, 2014, Media Matters for America reported that the speech was virtually identical to the one the NRA CEO gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference one month earlier on March 6, 2014. An in-depth review of both speeches by Media Matters identified only three substantive differences. Media Matters was unable to determine why LaPierre “plagiarized himself.”

In an October 17, 2012 interview with NRA News, LaPierre stated, "We’ll go to our graves mourning the freedoms we’ve lost in this country if we don’t step up between now and election time and make the difference in this election and make sure President [Barack] Obama’s defeated on election day."

In the October 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “Of all the threats to American liberty posed by the [President Barack] Obama administration, the most dangerous is the corruption of the U.S. Department of Justice where high-level misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance have become the norm. The U.S. Department of Justice is supposed to be a neutral guardian of the rule of law and protector of our national order. It is supposed to uphold the United States Constitution. Instead, under President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, it has become the national enforcer of Chicago-style thuggery on the national scene … Under operation ‘Fast and Furious,’ Holder’s Justice Department has abetted federal felony gun-law violations and international gun running—resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Mexican nationals and the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.” LaPierre was referring to the discontinued “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border. A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2012 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in “Fast and Furious” until after it was concluded in 2011. LaPierre then turned to the topic of Voter ID legislation, stating, “But no clearer example exists of the deep corruption at Justice than its efforts to vacate state laws preventing election fraud … The Obama/Holder Justice Department is running a vote fraud protection racket by jamming the courts with lawsuits opposing state mandates that provide a simple solution to election cheating–Voter ID … Now connect the dots to another key assault on our freedom. Aligned with the Department of Homeland Security, Obama’s top federal law enforcement leaders are refusing to enforce immigration laws to stem the tide of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, potential illegal voters.” Voter ID laws in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida have been challenged in court by the Department of Justice over allegations that they disenfranchise minorities. In July of 2012, the DOJ began investigating Pennsylvania’s Voter ID law to determine whether it discriminates against minorities. Furthermore, research has shown that in-person voter fraud of the kind LaPierre warns about is extremely rare in the United States.

In the October 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “Of all the threats to American liberty posed by the [President Barack] Obama administration, the most dangerous is the corruption of the U.S. Department of Justice where high-level misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance have become the norm. The U.S. Department of Justice is supposed to be a neutral guardian of the rule of law and protector of our national order. It is supposed to uphold the United States Constitution. Instead, under President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, it has become the national enforcer of Chicago-style thuggery on the national scene … Under operation ‘Fast and Furious,’ Holder’s Justice Department has abetted federal felony gun-law violations and international gun running—resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Mexican nationals and the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.” LaPierre was referring to the discontinued “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border. A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2012 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in “Fast and Furious” until after it was concluded in 2011. LaPierre then turned to the topic of Voter ID legislation, stating, “But no clearer example exists of the deep corruption at Justice than its efforts to vacate state laws preventing election fraud … The Obama/Holder Justice Department is running a vote fraud protection racket by jamming the courts with lawsuits opposing state mandates that provide a simple solution to election cheating–Voter ID … Now connect the dots to another key assault on our freedom. Aligned with the Department of Homeland Security, Obama’s top federal law enforcement leaders are refusing to enforce immigration laws to stem the tide of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, potential illegal voters.” Voter ID laws in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida have been challenged in court by the Department of Justice over allegations that they disenfranchise minorities. In July of 2012, the DOJ began investigating Pennsylvania’s Voter ID law to determine whether it discriminates against minorities. Furthermore, research has shown that in-person voter fraud of the kind LaPierre warns about is extremely rare in the United States.

In the July 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “We have been enormously successful in restoring Second Amendment freedom to honest Americans. But those hard-earned victories are vulnerable so long as Barack Obama is president. Despite his claims to the contrary, the threats we face today are as real and dangerous as any we’ve face before … Americans have had enough of this administration’s elitist contempt for our freedoms and our way of life … We can’t wait. If we sit back and count on a victory in 2016, we will face four long years under an emboldened anti-gun president. With no more elections to worry about, Obama will finally be free to launch an open assault on the Second Amendment. Now is the time to stop that from happening. It’s up to each of us to ask ourselves one simple question every day from now until November: am I doing everything I can to win this election?”

Sources

Republican Party (GOP)

In the July 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “We have been enormously successful in restoring Second Amendment freedom to honest Americans. But those hard-earned victories are vulnerable so long as Barack Obama is president. Despite his claims to the contrary, the threats we face today are as real and dangerous as any we’ve face before … Americans have had enough of this administration’s elitist contempt for our freedoms and our way of life … We can’t wait. If we sit back and count on a victory in 2016, we will face four long years under an emboldened anti-gun president. With no more elections to worry about, Obama will finally be free to launch an open assault on the Second Amendment. Now is the time to stop that from happening. It’s up to each of us to ask ourselves one simple question every day from now until November: am I doing everything I can to win this election?”

In the June 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned, “American freedom as we know it is in jeopardy.” He wrote, “There is no greater freedom than the ability to own a firearm to protect yourself, your family, your community and your country. That freedom is the heart and soul of our nation. And that soul is at stake in this election … If [President Barack] Obama wins this year, he will wage an all-out assault on America’s heart and soul. This isn’t just the most important election of our lifetimes–it’s the most important election for our children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s lifetimes.”

Sources

Republican Party (GOP)

In the June 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned, “American freedom as we know it is in jeopardy.” He wrote, “There is no greater freedom than the ability to own a firearm to protect yourself, your family, your community and your country. That freedom is the heart and soul of our nation. And that soul is at stake in this election … If [President Barack] Obama wins this year, he will wage an all-out assault on America’s heart and soul. This isn’t just the most important election of our lifetimes–it’s the most important election for our children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s lifetimes.”

Sources

Conspiracy Theory

In the May 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “All our freedoms are on the line [in the 2012 presidential election].” He accused President Barack Obama of being connected to a political “web of Chicago thug[s],” and having spun a “web of lies…about [his] phony, claimed support of the Second Amendment.”

Sources

Republican Party (GOP)

In the May 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “All our freedoms are on the line [in the 2012 presidential election].” He accused President Barack Obama of being connected to a political “web of Chicago thug[s],” and having spun a “web of lies…about [his] phony, claimed support of the Second Amendment.”

In the March 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned that if the NRA fails to end the “Barack Obama regime…the Right to Keep and Bear Arms could well perish in a Supreme Court heartbeat.” He added that an “Obama majority” on the Supreme Court would “rule that only the government has a right to guns, not individuals like you.” “We have time to stop the Obama juggernaut and to make history together,” LaPierre stated, “but we must start now—not only to save our guns but to save our heritage. The future of freedom in America depends on it.”

Sources

Republican Party (GOP)

In the March 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned that if the NRA fails to end the “Barack Obama regime…the Right to Keep and Bear Arms could well perish in a Supreme Court heartbeat.” He added that an “Obama majority” on the Supreme Court would “rule that only the government has a right to guns, not individuals like you.” “We have time to stop the Obama juggernaut and to make history together,” LaPierre stated, “but we must start now—not only to save our guns but to save our heritage. The future of freedom in America depends on it.”

In the February 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre declared that the 2012 presidential election “could prove [to be] the most disastrous in the history of the country,” because President Barack Obama is “leading our country straight to…tyranny.” “It’s all or nothing,” LaPierre warned. “Either we defeat Barack Obama and retain all the benefits of our pro-gun victories over the last 30 years…or we lose this election and we lose it all.”

Sources

Republican Party (GOP)

In the February 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre declared that the 2012 presidential election “could prove [to be] the most disastrous in the history of the country,” because President Barack Obama is “leading our country straight to…tyranny.” “It’s all or nothing,” LaPierre warned. “Either we defeat Barack Obama and retain all the benefits of our pro-gun victories over the last 30 years…or we lose this election and we lose it all.”

In the January 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre declared, “The emerging autocracy of President Barack Obama presents the gravest danger to our individual liberty in our lifetimes … The Second Amendment and our national character as we know it are at stake in the coming elections.” He accused the Obama Administration of being “engaged in a conspiracy of public deception intended to…excise the Second Amendment” from the Constitution. “The nation cannot survive another four years of Obama’s arrogant one-man rule,” LaPierre wrote.

Sources

Republican Party (GOP)

In the January 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre declared, “The emerging autocracy of President Barack Obama presents the gravest danger to our individual liberty in our lifetimes … The Second Amendment and our national character as we know it are at stake in the coming elections.” He accused the Obama Administration of being “engaged in a conspiracy of public deception intended to…excise the Second Amendment” from the Constitution. “The nation cannot survive another four years of Obama’s arrogant one-man rule,” LaPierre wrote.

At the 2007 National Rifle Association annual meeting, LaPierre told the audience, “So no matter what the animal rights terrorists throw at us, no matter what crime wave illegal immigrant gangs cause, no matter what deals are cut in the back rooms of the United Nations, no matter who is slamming gavels at the Supreme Court, no matter who is sitting in the White House, and no matter who wins what election or chairs what committee, if they are enemies of what’s in that exhibit hall over there, if they threaten what that great hall preserves [guns], if they dare assault the one freedom that secures all freedoms, this National Rifle Association, millions and millions of members strong, you will rise and stand and we, together, will fight them all.”

Sources

Labor

In 2005, LaPierre called for the boycott of ConocoPhillips after the company filed a lawsuit to defend its ban on the possession of firearms at an Oklahoma refinery. He then made the following statement: “ConocoPhillips went to federal court to attack your freedom. Now freedom is going to fire back … Idabel, Oklahoma, is a new Concord Bridge. Our forefathers didn’t run from the Redcoats in 1775 and we’re not going to run from the corporations in 2005.”

Sources

Political Violence

In 2005, LaPierre called for the boycott of ConocoPhillips after the company filed a lawsuit to defend its ban on the possession of firearms at an Oklahoma refinery. He then made the following statement: “ConocoPhillips went to federal court to attack your freedom. Now freedom is going to fire back … Idabel, Oklahoma, is a new Concord Bridge. Our forefathers didn’t run from the Redcoats in 1775 and we’re not going to run from the corporations in 2005.”

Sources

Property Rights

In 2005, LaPierre called for the boycott of ConocoPhillips after the company filed a lawsuit to defend its ban on the possession of firearms at an Oklahoma refinery. He then made the following statement: “ConocoPhillips went to federal court to attack your freedom. Now freedom is going to fire back … Idabel, Oklahoma, is a new Concord Bridge. Our forefathers didn’t run from the Redcoats in 1775 and we’re not going to run from the corporations in 2005.”